


Don't Leave Things Broken

by TheCasualAuthor



Category: Stranger Things (TV 2016)
Genre: Angst, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Friendship, Hurt/Comfort, M/M, Post-Season/Series 02, Season 3 theories, based on a prompt, based on the S3 trailer, but mostly will and mike being best friends, will/mike subtext
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-06-11
Updated: 2019-06-11
Packaged: 2020-04-24 15:53:36
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,872
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19176526
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TheCasualAuthor/pseuds/TheCasualAuthor
Summary: Based on the prompt i received on tumblr: Can it be angst or hurt comfort for the prompts? I kinda want mike to be saying the stuff about not being a kid to will, realizing that will didnt get to grow up like they did and then apologize





	Don't Leave Things Broken

**WILL**

Sitting on the edge of his bed, Will studies every inch of his bedroom closely, as if he’s never going to see it again. Which isn’t true, exactly, because according to his mom, they will be living there until the end of summer. But since she broke the news to him last night, he can’t help but already miss the life he knows. His bedroom, the house, Hawkins – despite everything they’ve been through here.

Everything that makes his mom want to leave: his time missing in the Upside Down, him being possessed by the Shadowmonster, the trauma they both suffer because of it.

But also, everything that makes Will want to stay: all of his friends, D&D, Castle Byers. Even if all his suffering happened in Hawkins, all of his happiness is rooted here, too.

And now they’re moving away.

Will stands up and walks over to his desk, looking down on the drawings scattered across it. Lately, the subjects he has been drawing has been less happy things. Since he got taken into the Upside Down, most of his drawings have been pretty sinister. He picks up one of his older ones, tainted by childish skill, but brighter in a way he can’t draw now.

He feels a surge of anger for the life he has lost. He hasn’t felt like himself ever since everything started going down in ’83, and now, two years later, things are so different it’s like living a different life entirely. Before was about friends, play and adventure, now is about getting through each day one by one, and making sure his mom is there with him. 

It hits him then, like a light switch being turned on; he’s only got one last summer. The past few years have been tainted by the aftermath of everything he’s been through. He has not appreciated being with his friends as much as he should have, and now it’s come to bite him in the ass. 

The best way to spend this summer is to make sure he enjoys every last bit of it. He’ll put away his trauma, and temporarily put away the fact that he won’t be here anymore come fall. It can be the best last summer with his friends, if he puts his mind to it.

That night, after a long day by the lake, Will suggests something they haven’t made the time for in a long while:

“Guys, wouldn’t it be fun if we did a D&D campaign this week? For old time’s sake?” 

“Hell yes!” Dustin exclaims. “It’s been so long since we last did. What do you say, Dungeon Master?”

Everyone turns towards Mike, who looks a little confused. His eyes meet Will’s, and he gives a small smile accompanied by a tiny shrug: “I mean, yeah, sure, that sounds fun,” 

Which is how, four days later, they find themselves back in Mike’s basement around a table they haven’t sat around in a while, two new players among their midst. 

Mike spends a long time explaining the game to El and Max, the first looking intrigued and fascinated by the premise, the latter looking as if she doesn’t really care too much but listening closely none the less.

When they finally get started, it’s fairly obvious that Mike hasn’t put a lot of work into the campaign planning. Will doesn’t really care, he was mostly just excited about playing again for the chance to hang out like old times, losing themselves in the game. Dustin, however, seems to be more unimpressed.

“Seriously? Mike, that was so predictable!” he exclaims.

“You’re just pissed cause you didn’t see it coming before I did,” Lucas taunts him.

“Am not. I’m just saying because it was almost identical to one of the campaigns we did last fall,” Dustin points out, leaning back in his chair and glowering at Mike. Mike rolls his eyes.

“I didn’t have much time to prepare it, I’m sorry it’s not living up to your high standards, Dustin,” he says sarcastically. They get back into the game for maybe 20 minutes before Max groans and puts her head on the table.

“This blows,” she proclaims. “It’s 90 degrees outside and we’re sitting in a sweaty basement doing this, rather than cooling off at the pool or lake?”

“Yeah, I’m kind of not feeling it either,” Lucas agrees with her, and Will feels an irk of annoyance. He says nothing, watching the situation.

“Seriously? Now you’re just pissed because you’re doing worse than me,”

“Actually, Dustin, I want to go and swim,” Lucas protests.

“El,” Mike says, turning towards El who’s looking a little confused at the turn of events. “You want to go swim or continue the game?”

El considers this for a moment, then apparently decides she wants to go where Max is going, and responds: “The lake sounds good,”

“Yeah, I agree. Let’s go to the lake,” Mike announces, and it just spills over for Will. 

Standing up, he says loudly: “Seriously?! How many times this week have we gone swimming? Seven times! And it’s only Thursday! I thought maybe, for once, we could do something else. Maybe it’s too much to ask that we do something we all used to enjoy. But all you ever have time for nowadays is going to the pool or the lake and chilling…”

Everyone looks at him and there’s a horrible moment of silence where Will has to process his outburst and replay his own words in his mind on full volume. Then, it all becomes much worse as Mike speaks up.

“We're not kids anymore.” He states, and Will’s stomach sinks with the realisation that he wasn’t really aware of that fact until just now. “I mean, what did you think? That we're just going to sit in my basement all day playing games for the rest of our lives?”

The air feels thick, almost too thick for Will to be able to breathe it properly. Dustin’s eyeing the wall awkwardly, Lucas is looking at his feet, Max is fading into the background and El is switching between looking at Will and Mike, seeming as if she can’t comprehend what is happening between them right now. Will can’t really comprehend it either. 

Finally, he finds his voice again, swallowing with difficulty: “No,” Pause. “I guess I just hoped we all still had things in common,”

And with that, he leaves, with the others all too stunned to stop him.

-

**MIKE**

“Um,” Max says when Will has left. “Should we go after him?”

“He probably wants to be alone right now,” Lucas says. “We can try talking to him about it tomorrow, when he’s cooled off.”

“Yeah, okay,” she says, still looking unsure. 

Mike is unsure himself about what the hell just happened. One moment they were cool, the next Will was shouting at them, something Mike knows for a fact has never happened before. Will doesn’t really shout, it’s really not his thing.

“Mike,” El says, and Mike slowly manages to pull some of his attention to her, the rest still stuck on whatever just happened. “Why did you say that to him?”

“Huh?” Mike utters. “I… He was being ridiculous! Shouting at us like that as if we’re doing something wrong! We tried playing, and it was obvious none of us were enjoying it, neither was he.”

“Yes, but now he’s sad. You hurt him.” El says somberly.

Mike’s stomach twists hearing that. He shakes it off. “Let’s go to the lake. We’ll see him tomorrow.”

They do go to the lake but are all mostly quiet all the way there. It’s never a good thing fighting with a friend, but it’s like they all share this mutual feeling that arguing with Will is even worse. It’s not something that happens a lot, because Will is usually very easy going and always willing to let the others get their way. It tugs on Mike’s mind all afternoon. 

They eventually start getting their mind off it, swimming and finding a beach volleyball. After a few hours, things seem mostly like usual, but the absence of Will is still obvious. 

“Children!” a familiar voice cries, making the group all face the source. Steve Harrington strolls towards them with swimming trunks on, a thick layer of sunscreen on his chest and an oversized, pink swim ring under one arm and a towel in the other. 

“Where’d you get that monstrosity?” Dustin asks, pointing to the swim ring. Steve ignores the question and instead joins their extremely amateur game of beach volleyball.

“Where’s Little Byers?” he asks eventually, and they all falter a little bit. “Something happen?”

“He’s behaving really weirdly. He got super mad at us for not wanting to play D&D and just ran off.” Lucas explains.

“Oh, well, he’s probably just upset cause he’s moving,” Steve shrugs, then serves the ball straight into Dustin’s face. “Jeez, Dustin! You okay? Pay attention!”

“He’s moving?!” Mike exclaims, his head spinning. “What are you talking about?”

“Yeah Jonathan said – wait… he hasn’t told you? Shit. I take it back! No one’s moving. Please don’t tell him I told you….”

Mike feels cold all over, never mind the 90-degree weather and sun baking his back. He looks hopelessly to his friends, hoping they have an answer to this, but they all look equally shocked and confused. 

“I gotta - ” he stutters. “I gotta go.”

“Mike,” Lucas says. “Should we come too?”

Mike shakes his head, shoving his stuff into his backpack without care. “No, I need to apologize to him. If he wants, we’ll find you guys later, okay?”

“Yeah, sure. Tell him we’re sorry, too okay?” Dustin says.

Nodding absentmindedly, Mike gets on his bike and gets out of there before anyone can add anything to the conversation. 

His mind is spinning. Will can’t be moving, he just can’t. They’ve been friends since the first day of kindergarten. Will is the one person Mike knows he can count on for absolutely anything. Mike had even noticed something was a little off with Will the past couple of days, but he’d written it off because Will sometimes gets into a mood which passes after a few days. 

Since when had Mike stopped letting Will know he was there for him?

He knows first hand how hard these past years have been for Will. After the disappearance, things had been different. For a while they’d all tried pretending like they weren’t, but it’s impossible to come back from an alternate dimension and be the same. But at least, Mike had been there for Will. For an entire year he was always there for him, no matter how hard things got.

Then, El came back. And it hurts to admit, but Mike knows he hasn’t been there for Will as much after that.

A part of him probably thought that things were better now, because hey, El came back, and that was the root of all their problems, wasn’t it? He sees now how stupid he’s been. El might have come back but that doesn’t magically erase everything that happened, everything Will went through. 

And now, Will is moving and Mike hasn’t even been a real friend to him for the past half-year.

He only realizes he’s been crying when he jumps off his bike outside Will’s house and throws it to the ground in his rush to get to the door. He knocks, almost frantically, and jumps when it’s thrown open by none other than an annoyed Chief Hopper.

“The hell, kid?” he grumbles, but his eyes soften as he takes in Mike’s undoubtedly wild appearance. He opens the door wide. “He’s in his room,”

Mike walks quickly through the house, but pauses outside Will’s door, unsure all of a sudden. He’d been too busy thinking about everything that’s happened and beating himself up about it, and forgot to think of what to say to Will. Hesitantly, he reaches up and knocks softly on the familiar door. He wouldn’t usually knock, but it feels strangely inappropriate to just come barging in after messing up so badly.

“Come in,” a muffled voice speaks from behind the door, and Mike lets himself in, shutting the door quietly behind him. 

Will is lying on his stomach, hugging his pillow and facing the other way, not even looking up to see who it is.

“Uh, hey,” Mike says awkwardly, and that gets Will moving. He sits up and looks at Mike with genuine surprise, like it’s so crazy that he would come and talk to Will. Mike wants to slap himself. “Can we talk?”

“Yeah,” Will breathes, then makes space for Mike on the bed, shuffling up to sit against the headboard and looking at his hands as they fiddle with the pillow. Mike watches his hands, too, scared to speak. Finally, he looks up at Will’s face.

“Will, I’m sorry,” he says shakily. “I was an ass,”

Will looks up, his eyes a little shiny. “No, you weren’t,”

“Yeah, I was,” Mike insists. “What I said to you was really stupid. Just because we’re not kids doesn’t mean we can’t play D&D anymore. I should’ve tried harder planning the campaign,”

“It’s okay, Mike,” Will mumbles. “I don’t even know why I got so mad. It’s okay that we do different things now than before,”

“Yeah, but you have a right to be upset when we were being so stupid about it,”

Will looks thoughtful, then looks up and meets Mike’s eyes finally. “I think I only really got upset because it feels like I never really got to say goodbye to it, you know? Or… that doesn’t make sense,”

“Tell me what you mean,” Mike urges him, scooting a little closer.

“I mean… after I got back from the Upside Down, we still played some. And I wanted to enjoy it and lose myself in it like we used to, but it was so hard when everything was weighing on my mind. The last time I really enjoyed playing was the night I got taken,” Will explains, and Mike’s heart sinks. “I guess what I mean is that it feels like I never got closure on my childhood, stupid as it sounds,”

“It’s not stupid,” Mike whispers, his eyes stinging. “Will, I should have realized. I’ve been so stupid. And such a bad friend. Ever since El came back it’s like I just forgot, because I was so happy she was home again. But that’s not fair to you,”

Will sighs. “You shouldn’t feel like you have to take care of me,”

“I don’t,” Mike says determinedly. “Will, I’m supposed to be your best friend, but I haven’t really been that. I’ve been selfish. I’m sorry,”

Will smiles, a small quirked smile. “You already said that,” he meets Mike’s eyes again, and Mike can see Will’s eyes are glassy too. “I forgive you. If you forgive me for being an ass, too,”

“What?” Mike is confused. What could Will possibly be sorry for?

“That thing I said about us not having things in common anymore? It’s not true at all. I was just upset about… something, and I took it out on all of you. I do actually like spending time with you guys, it doesn’t matter what we do,”

Mike smiles, which in turn has Will smiling back. Then, Mike looks down and hesitates again before asking. “When were you gonna tell us you’re moving?”

Will’s face falls, and he frowns sadly, fumbling with the pillow again. “I don’t know. I think I just wanted to pretend it wasn’t happening and have one last summer of us just doing what we usually do,”

“Are you moving far?” Mike asks, voice raspy, afraid of what the answer may be.

“Somewhere in Maine, Mom said.” 

“What?!” Mike erupts. “Will, that’s so far away,” 

“I know,” Will says miserably. 

Mike starts crying again, then, and Will looks up in surprise when he does. Mike apologizes and buries his face in his hands. 

“You can’t move. I don’t know what I’ll do without you here. We need you.” 

Suddenly, he feels skinny arms enveloping him, and it takes less than a second for him to return the hug with all his might. They cry together like that for a while, though Mike couldn’t tell you how long. 

They make promises about staying friends, no matter what. They’ll call every day, because how could they possibly go from seeing each other every day to rarely talking? And they are gonna visit each other on as many occasions possible. And they say that, in a few years, when they’re done with high school, they’ll apply for the same college and go there together.

It won’t be the same, but God help him if Mike can’t keep Will Byers as his best friend. It’s just out of the question.

-

In the end, the Byers don’t move. While it could probably have brought some peace of mind, to get away from the place where their worst memories reside, how could they ever leave their extended family behind? Joyce couldn’t leave Hopper, and she would never take Will away from his friends or Mike.

**Author's Note:**

> Follow me on my Stranger Things [tumblr](https://astrangerthingsblog.tumblr.com)


End file.
